It’s been a long time since USGE has posted an article on this important issue for our members and we’ve made some significant strides in our endeavours that we believe are important to communicate.
As many of you know, CSC has been consolidating their work descriptions and has been implementing NGWDs in an effort to ensure national consistency with respect to work being performed by similar positions. Furthermore, a consultative process was put in place in an attempt to jointly resolve the thousands of grievances filed by USGE members in relation to their work descriptions. The focus of this initiative is therefore currently on NGWDs where grievances have been filed against the content of the work descriptions.
Over the past months, USGE has been consulting both grievors and incumbents of a number of positions in order to gather the necessary information and feedback to assist CSC in the development of new work descriptions. The goal of this consultative process is to ensure that CSC has the required information to update the NGWDs ensuring that they accurately reflect the duties and tasks each employee is required to perform.
The steps of the process USGE and CSC have agreed upon are as follows:
- USGE is to consult grievors and incumbents to obtain their comments regarding the content of the work description asking that they identify new or missing duties in the current NGWD.
- USGE provides the feedback received to CSC so that they may draft an updated NGWD.
- CSC drafts an updated NGWD and shares the new NGWD with USGE.
- USGE reviews the new NGWD to determine whether it accurately reflects the duties incumbents and grievors have reported.
- If USGE is in agreement with the contents of the new NGWD, all grievances contesting the job content will be withdrawn and the new NGWD will be sent to classification for evaluation so that a classification decision on the group and level can be rendered.
- If USGE is not in agreement with the contents of the new NGWD and/or should CSC fail to include key activities in the new NGWD, the work description grievances may be presented at a third level grievance hearing and may be referred to the PSAC for further action. The NGWD will not be sent to classification until such time as all the grievances relative to job content are resolved.
- Once a classification decision has been rendered, USGE will then assess the merits of all individual pay grievances that are linked to the NGWDs.
Questions on this consultation process can be directed to your USGE Regional Vice-Presidents or to the USGE National Office at NGWD-DTGN@psac-afpc.com.